Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 12: Though the first list of 189 BJP candidates for the 224-member Karnataka state Assembly was said to had been finalised after the prime minister Narendra Modi’s intervention, it did not reflect the party’s claim of having brought in new blood and show that the ruling party has not ventured to shake its applecart in a major way.
The first list, despite boasting 52 fresh faces, features as many as 96 sitting MLAs or their kin (out of the 116 BJP MLAs currently in the 224-member Assembly). The list also showed that the turncoats have been rewarded at the cost of the party’s old members as the 96 incumbent MLAs or their kin included 12 legislators who were elected on a BJP ticket after defecting from the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) in 2019 to topple a Congress-JD(S) coalition government.
In a growing crisis for the BJP in Karnataka, more and more leaders are hitting out and threatening to quit after the party announced its first list of candidates for next month’s election. After senior leader Laxman Savadi quit the party this morning, a former BJP MLA, Doddappagouda Patil Naribol, announced his exit. A minister, S Angara, has threatened to quit. All three have been dropped as candidates. The former chief minister Jagadish Shettar has threatened to contest as an independent if his efforts to get the party ticket did not materialise.
“I have made my decision. I am not one to go around with a begging bowl. I am a self-respecting politician. I am not acting under anyone’s influence,” Laxman Savadi said. Sources say he is in talks with the Congress and may soon make a switch. Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar, however, told reporters: “He is neither in touch with me nor he has spoken with me.”
The BJP held several rounds of meetings and postponed declaration of its candidates at least twice due to infighting before it finally came out with the first lot of 189 candidates on Tuesday night. Modi had, according to sources, stressed that the party must do away with “tainted, jaded and adjustment politics”. He reportedly made it clear that the BJP’s candidates should be “proof of intent” and cannot be a repeat of the past lists that could make people question the party’s promises.
According to senior BJP leaders, the PM made a critical intervention during the meeting of the central election committee on Sunday. He, they said, made it clear that if he has to ask the people of Karnataka to give the party a majority on its own at least once — the party missed it in 2008 and also in 2019– the list of candidates should be nothing less than a “proof of intent” and cannot be a repeat of the past lists that could make people question the party’s promises.
“The Prime Minister was clear that with the same old patriarchs and narrative, people will not be convinced. He said the party should make its intent of being serious about the future of the state very clear and it should reflect in the list, which then was worked upon after many more consultations,” another functionary said.
The selection of the BJP candidates this time was based mainly on three metrics, apart from the caste factor, barring exceptions, a senior leader explained. But having faced the fallout of rebels in Himachal Pradesh, the party leadership wanted the list to be a statement that can inspire confidence in people without disrupting the party’s chances within the existing social dynamics. But despite party’s efforts to infuse “new blood,” it was inevitable for the party to give ticket to all the defectors since the party used their services to come to power and it would send the wrong signal if they were denied tickets amid allegations of widespread corruption behind their induction.
The BJP says it has taken tough decisions that will pay off on the day of the results on May 13. The one major plus factor in its efforts to retain power in the only southern state it is ruling, the BJP has put up two strong candidates against the Congress’s both the chief ministerial hopefuls DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah. R Ashok and V Somanna are not only contesting against the two top Congress leaders in the Dakshina Karnataka region – from Kanakpura and Varuna – but also in their own constituencies.
The BJP is seen to be weak in the two seats. BJP leaders say it is a well-considered move. Two strong candidates in Dakshina Karnataka region will bolster the ranks and improve the party’s performance in the region, the BJP feels. Ashok, a prominent Vokkaliga leader, and Somanna, a Lingayat leader, both are considered strong in their communities. The BJP plans to invest all its resources in winning the two seats; both candidates have been promised seats for their families if they perform well.
The BJP believes that challenging the Congress’s biggest leaders in Karnataka will keep them confined to their constituencies, weakening the opposition party’s overall campaign. The BJP has poured huge amounts of funds into the constituencies of its sitting MLAs over the last four years to cement their places in the respective regions. The former Congress and JD(S) MLAs who have been given BJP tickets are reported to have been provided with a lion’s share of resources that they would be expected to return during the polls.
In February, the BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel had said the BJP government had provided Rs 1000 crore of funds for the development of party constituencies in the state. “If we connect the beneficiaries of the various schemes of the government with the party then there is no question of the BJP losing the polls. We have a plan,” BJP national general secretary C T Ravi said two months ago. “We have a list of the beneficiaries of government schemes and we have to work on the data to connect them to the party. If we remind them of the benefits they have got then that is enough for us to succeed,” he said.
“This time there is an intent to bring about a newness. There have been a lot of discussions from the lowest level and decisions have been taken. In the first list, it is clear that BJP will win. The Congress and JDS have released their first list and when we compare we can see that the BJP will win a majority from the first list of 189 itself,” Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said.
“Many of those who are being changed have also been spoken to and what are the reasons and what action will be taken. We are telling people when the circumstances require it,” Bommai said.
